Quote:
Originally Posted by photoLith
And so now that the city owns the former Penguins land does this mean that development will start hopefully next year?
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That's not the deal. The deal is the Penguins no longer have to forfeit land they don't develop until 2028. Moreover, they no longer have to buy the land they develop as they develop it. The public also has to build them a very expensive, 1000-car garage.
In return, we no longer have to give them $14 million in tax credits, which they could use to buy the land. In other words, they basically just bought the land for the future value of $14 million, which is less in present value. Also, if they don't meet certain intermediary benchmarks, they will have to give up a minority of their parking revenue.
Overall, this is a bad deal for the public, because we very likely could have gotten more money for the land and gotten better projects by taking the land back and bidding it off, rather than selling it to the Penguins on a no-bid basis. That garage is also bound to be a money-loser so that is another huge giveaway to the Penguins.
Still, everyone involved in the deal is swearing this means development will start now and move along faster, despite the fact they just waived the original deadlines and associated penalties. We'll see, but the local history of these deals is when the sports team/developer doesn't meet its benchmarks/targets, the enforcement of the old deal is waived and it gets a new deal instead . . . which is exactly what just happened.